NY Times:

President Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years, he paid $750 in US income taxes in 2016, 2017

The Associated Press,
Associated Press•September 27, 2020

President Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for president and in his first year in the White House, according to a report Sunday in The New York Times.

Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern times not to make them public, paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years.

The details of the tax filings complicate Trump’s description of himself as a shrewd and patriotic businessman, revealing instead a series of financial losses and income from abroad that could come into conflict with his responsibilities as president. The president’s financial disclosures indicated he earned at least $434.9 million in 2018, but the tax filings reported a $47.4 million loss.

The disclosure, which the Times said comes from tax return data it obtained extending over two decades, comes at a pivotal moment ahead of the first presidential debate Tuesday and weeks before a divisive election against Democrat Joe Biden.

Speaking at a news conference Sunday at the White House, Trump dismissed the report as “fake news” and said he has paid taxes, though he gave no specifics. He also vowed that information about his taxes “will all be revealed,” but he offered no timeline for the disclosure and made similar promises during the 2016 campaign on which he never followed through.

In fact, the president has fielded court challenges against those seeking access to his returns, including the U.S. House, which is suing for access to Trump's tax returns as part of congressional oversight.

During his first two years as president, Trump received $73 million from foreign operations, which in addition to his golf properties in Scotland and Ireland included $3 million from the Philippines, $2.3 million from India and $1 million from Turkey. The president in 2017 paid $145,400 in taxes in India and $156,824 in the Philippines, compared to just $750 in U.S. income taxes. 

 

Trump found multiple ways to reduce his tax bills. He has taken tax deductions on personal expenses such as housing, aircraft and $70,000 in haircare. Losses in the property businesses solely owned and managed by Trump appear to have offset income from his stake in the television show “The Apprentice” and other entities with multiple owners.

During the first two years of his presidency, Trump relied on business tax credits to reduce his tax obligations. The Times said $9.7 million worth of business investment credits that were submitted after Trump requested an extension to file his taxes allowed him to reduce his income and pay just $750 each in 2016 and 2017.

Trump, starting in 2010, claimed and received an income tax refund that totaled $72.9 million, which the Times said was at the core of an ongoing audit by the IRS. The president has declined to release his taxes because of the audit.

A lawyer for the Trump Organization, Alan Garten, and a spokesperson for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on the report.

Garten told the Times that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate.”

He said in a statement to the news organization that the president "has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government, including paying millions in personal taxes since announcing his candidacy in 2015.”

The New York Times said it declined to provide Garten with the tax filings in order to protect its sources.

During his first general election debate against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, Clinton said that perhaps Trump wasn't releasing his tax returns because he had paid nothing in federal taxes.

Trump interrupted her to say, "That makes me smart.”

UAE to send Arab world's first mission to the moon in 2024

Staff Reporter/Dubai
Filed on September 27, 2020 

(Twitter)
Sheikh Mohammed reviews 10-year strategy of MBRSC.

THE SHEIKH OF ARABIA SHOULD WEAR HIS MASK PROPERLY

LIKE THE FELLOW IN THE BACK 

The UAE will send the Arab world's first mission to the moon in 2024, it was announced on Saturday. The announcement comes a couple of months after the country successfully launched the Hope probe to Mars - the Arab world's first interplanetary mission.

The Emirates Moon Exploration Project will see "national competencies" employed for the mission.

This came as His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, reviewed a 10-year strategy of the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). The strategy 2021-31 includes programmes to develop new specialised satellites and an outer space simulation centre for training, academic and educational programmes.

Sheikh Mohammed also referred to new space missions that will be announced soon. "The Emirati space programme is sustainable and would produce outputs that would have practical applications across other sectors. Professionals from these sectors will share their experiences with the rest of the country and the region. It will build international knowledge partnerships that will benefit humanity."

Sheikh Mohammed and the MBRSC reviewed the strategy that establishes a new phase of cooperation with international space agencies.

The strategy includes the objectives of the UAE National Space Programme in addition to five key components: The Emirates Mars Mission (Hope Probe), the Mars 2117 project, the UAE Astronaut Programme, the UAE Satellite Programme and the UAE Space Sector Sustainability Programme.

Sheikh Mohammed tweeted: "The UAE's ambition in the space sector explores, plans and makes the future. Our youth, engineers and pioneers open new horizons in the science, technology and innovation fields in this vital sector for the future of our world."

Innovation in space

Sheikh Mohammed was also briefed about the objectives of the new strategy to enhance innovation in the national space sector. It will prepare a new generation of qualified national cadres in the space sector to pursue advanced specialities in science, technology and space sectors. It will also attract new investments to the national space sector, which has seen more than Dh22 billion over the past few years.

Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the MBRSC, said: "We are embarking on a new phase of the centre's journey with unlimited support from the leadership to achieve excellence in this vital sector for the future of humanity."

Yousuf Hamad Al Shaibani, Director-General of the MBRSC, said the 10-year strategy aims to bolster the UAE's position among the leading countries in the international space sector.

reporters@khaleejtimes.com

UAE UFO 

Sharjah's iconic 'Flying Saucer' reopens with an artsy touch
Nandini Sircar/Sharjah  September 27, 2020 

(KT/M.Sajjad)

Initially conceived as a French-inspired store, it started off as a one-stop-shop with a cafe.

The Flying Saucer, an iconic landmark in Sharjah, has been reopened as an art and community space. It also features a multimedia art installation that references aliens and colonialism.

Over the past few decades, the building has taken on different roles. As the building changed hands, so did its functions and architecture. Initially conceived as a French-inspired store, it started off as a one-stop-shop with a cafe. It has also served as a restaurant and gift shop, before becoming a supermarket and a fast food restaurant.
The Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) began the process of restoring The Flying Saucer to its former glory in 2015.

Sheikha Nawar Al Qassimi, Vice-President of the foundation, said the dynamic space also will see some socially distanced film screenings and family workshops in the future.

The renovation introduced new elements enhancing the open character of the interior gallery space. The intervention also includes new additions designed to complement the building spatially to support its function as a community hub.

Sheikha Nawar added: "Arts, culture and education are Sharjah's pillars. Additionally, in the country today, there is a lot of talk about space exploration and the UAE's missions to Mars, so this building is particularly relevant in that context as well."

Talking about the nostalgia that the structure evokes, she said: "We grew up with this building around. The Flying Saucer has been a part of our cultural memory. The building had different functions from the 1970s onwards but one thing that was always there was its unique architectural structure. As a child, it was a really exciting UFO (unidentified flying object) building. As we grew up, we saw it take different forms and today we have preserved it and repurposed it as a space for arts, culture and education."

She said the idea is to take art out of formal museum spaces and bring it out to the public. "We have taken art spaces out of the art district and put them in everyday neighbourhoods and everyday locations in a way that it is not so formal and intimidating. So people can come and look at this place even if they are not a formal art audience, if they have just come here to have a cup of coffee, but they might end up checking out a show."

Who designed this UFO?

The intriguing part about this architectural quirk that was acquired by the SAF in 2012 is that nobody definitively knows who originally designed it.

Opened in 1978, the building's architecture draws from a combination of space-age and Brutalist influences that permeated the period.

Lindsay Seers, who is one of the creators of an immersive multimedia installation at the renovated building, said: "The building itself is quite mysterious. Nobody knows who built it. It almost feels like it dropped out of the sky and landed here as a UFO. In terms of its colonial history, it was next to a British Army Camp. They also had a phrase about this Flying Saucer ... 'the alien has landed'. I think it was to do with the idea of the aliens being the British occupying the territory here. There is a backdrop of post-colonialism as well."

The building has a "very specific" acoustic and lighting condition, Seers added. "It's a beautiful building. I knew I had to make something that referenced flying saucers. The building asks for it."

Keith Sargent, another key artist responsible for the multimedia installation, said: "There has been a lot of research around the idea of a building that doesn't seem to have any record of how it got here. So, that became the iteration of this piece."

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/general/uaes-iconic-flying-saucer-reopens-with-an-artsy-touch-

‘Holy grail’ or epic hoax? Australian Kelly Cahill’s UFO abduction story still stirs passions


Matt Neal

If her story is to believed, on August 7, 1993, Gippsland woman Kelly Cahill saw a UFO and beings from another world.

As detailed in her in 1996 book Encounter, Ms Cahill’s case had all the hallmarks of the classic alien abduction story of the era – lost time, strange spaceships, bright lights, inhuman creatures and inexplicable marks on her body.

But her story had something other alien visitations didn’t – independent witnesses who could potentially back up her story.

Along with her then-husband Andrew, who was in the car with her on that fateful night on Melbourne’s south-eastern fringes, there were reportedly four other people in two separate cars who would be able to verify her otherworldly claims.

Because of its multiple witnesses, the incident was hailed as the “holy grail” of alien abduction stories by UFO researchers and enthusiasts.

It was the one with the potential to provide definitive proof, once and for all, that the truth was out there.

Cult TV show The X-Files even referenced the case in an episode.

But 27 years on, the truth about the so-called Eumemmerring Creek encounter is anything but clear.

A detailed report into the claims was never released, the other witnesses never came forward publicly, and Ms Cahill disappeared from public view.

So was her ‘encounter’ a missed opportunity, or just another UFO hoax?

Kelly Cahill, as she appeared in her 1996 book Encounter.
‘Hooded figures with glowing eyes’

According to Ms Cahill, she and her then-husband Andrew were driving along the Belgrave-Hallam Road in Narre Warren on that fateful winter’s night in 1993.

They were en route to a friend’s house when Ms Cahill saw in a paddock a row of five or six large orange lights on a ‘distinct circular shape . . . like nothing I had ever seen before’, she wrote in her book.

When they arrived at their destination, her husband and friends, and eventually even Ms Cahill, laughed it off.

But about midnight, driving home on the same road, she and Andrew apparently saw what she believed to be the same lights ‘hanging above the road’.


“I could then see that the orange lights were really windows . . . I could make out figures standing behind the portals,” Ms Cahill wrote.

The object flew off ‘at incredible speed’, but soon after they saw it again in a paddock on the side of the road, Ms Cahill said.  

  

Kelly Cahill’s drawing of the beings she claimed to have encounter in Narrewarren, taken from her book.

After that, Ms Cahill’s memory blanked, ‘like a cut to scene in a film’, and their car had travelled several hundred metres down the road without them knowing.

In the days and weeks that followed, she claimed to find strange marks on her body, including a small triangular wound below her bellybutton, and began experiencing stomach pains and night ‘visitations’ from tall black-hooded figures with lightly glowing red eyes.

Through hypnosis, she said, she was able to unlock her ‘missing time’.

Her husband had pulled over and they’d got out of the car to get a better look at the brightly lit object in the paddock.

Further back up the road, another car had parked, its occupants standing at the edge of the field.  

  

Bill Chalker called Kelly Cahill’s case “an extraordinary lost opportunity”.

A tall thin figure appeared in front of the object and Ms Cahill heard in her mind its thoughts: ‘‘Let’s kill them’’.

More beings appeared, unleashing an energy force that knocked Ms Cahill to the ground as she screamed to her husband: ‘‘They’ve got no souls! They’re evil! They’re going to kill us!’’

And that’s where her recollections end, but not the story.
The investigation begins

Sydney-based researcher Bill Chalker, of the UFO Investigation Centre, was one of the first people Ms Cahill contacted after that night.

Mr Chalker immediately thought it ‘a fairly important case’, but one that ‘‘required a lot of feet on the ground and a lot of intensive field investigations’’.

Mr Chalker alerted a loosely connected Melbourne group of paranormal investigators called Phenomena Research Australia [PRA], led by then-director John Auchettl.

Mr Auchettl interviewed Ms Cahill many times and examined the scene of the alleged sighting near Eumemmerring Creek  

.

Kelly Cahill appeared on Today Tonight in the ’90s to tell her encounter story.

He and the PRA placed an ad in local newspapers in an effort to find the occupants of the second car.

Remarkably, they got a response and Mr Auchettl said the stories from the second car were identical to Ms Cahill’s but went even further, detailing experiences inside the mystery craft where they were strapped to a table and examined by the beings.

According to the PRA, the women had the same triangular wounds near their navels, as well as other strange marks.

There was even talk of a third car driven by a local lawyer, PRA discovered, whose story also lined up.

The researchers began prepping an exhaustive 300-page report that promised to reveal the truth.
Burning bright in the night

Eventually the media got wind of the story and Ms Cahill appeared on TV current affairs show Today Tonight. Her story also ran in newspapers and magazines.

By 1996, she was a big name on the UFO circuit – a series of talks and conferences that thrived – and, with every appearance, Ms Cahill unveiled new tidbits from PRA’s forthcoming report.

Her book, published by Harper Collins, sold out and was quickly reprinted [it’s currently out of print and copies sell for $150 online].

But by 1998, Ms Cahill had disappeared from the scene and none of the other witnesses –including her ex-husband Andrew – had come out publicly to back her story.

As for PRA’s report, it was also nowhere to be seen.
‘Worthy of release’

Fast forward to 2020 and there’s still no report.

Aside from a brief moment of interest in 2016 when Ms Cahill’s case was name-dropped on The X-Files reboot by Fox Mulder, the ‘Eumemmerring Creek encounter’ has gone down in infamy.  

  

Kelly Cahill’s case was mentioned on The X-Files when it rebooted in 2016. Photo: Fox Broadcasting Company


As one Reddit user put it: “I used to think this was the holy grail case of encounter reports – I no longer hold that opinion.”

Remarkably, 27 years on from the event, John Auchettl told the ABC it was possible the PRA’s report might still come out, but not soon.

“The case is so good,” Mr Auchettl said.

“[Our report] is worthy of release.

“[But] we won’t release it [now] because once we release our report, then we become the focus of the case.

“Our idea was we would release the report and then bring [the witnesses] out.

“At the moment we don’t know where they are, so if we release anything all the focus is going to be on us. We’ll get hammered.”

He said the original 300-page report was whittled down to an unusable ‘100 pages or so’ when the witnesses, including Ms Cahill and her ex-husband, began to ask for information to be taken out and refused to allow the publication of medical and psychological reports they claimed backed up their stories.

Mr Auchettl also said that when Ms Cahill went to the media and other UFO groups in early 1994, it ‘‘muddied’’ the case.
‘An extraordinary lost opportunity’

Mr Chalker still believes Ms Cahill’s story but regrets handballing the case to PRA in 1993.


“There was a lot of bad blood that’s passed between them and me as a consequence of their role in this case,” Mr Chalker told the ABC.

“This was an extraordinary lost opportunity.

“I’ve seen a lot of information that suggests [the investigation] was carried out … but unfortunately they didn’t [want] to share the material.”

He said he ‘‘wasn’t that impressed with the explanations that were put forward’’ by PRA for withholding the report.



Mr Chalker wrote in his blog in 2016 he was ‘‘determined never to pass a case onto them again’’.

“It was frustrating that such a promising case was caught up in a situation where the group involved chose not to make their data available,” he wrote.

Mr Chalker said UFO enthusiasts had a right to feel disappointed by PRA keeping their research secret.

“I can understand the reaction from various members of the UFO research community,” he said.
Back to earth

As for Kelly Cahill, she dropped off the radar around 1998.

Mr Chalker said that in the early 2000s she called him and sent him all her files – ‘‘three large archival boxes’’ – and left the country.

She is now back in the Latrobe Valley in Gippsland, the same region she was living in when her ‘‘encounter’’ happened in 1993.

The ABC approached Ms Cahill for an interview but she did not respond.

“She really wanted to take a low profile and put all this behind her,” Mr Chalker said.

“She spent a lot of time trying to raise the profile of this episode and wanted to have the other [witnesses] come out as well.

“When it ultimately became pretty clear that she was going to be the only one that was going to go public on this, that’s when she felt less confident about being the constant contact point on this case, particularly when [PRA] didn’t back her up in terms of having the availability of all the case material that went with it.”

While it’s unclear how Ms Cahill feels about it all today, for a lot of UFO enthusiasts her case is either the one that got away or, worse, another one that never really was.
-ABC

https://thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/people-entertainment/2020/09/27/eumemmering-creek-aliens-ufo/

NBA Fans Bash Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory Calling LeBron an 'Illuminati Wizard’

BYJOE PRICE warm apple night @BackwoodsAltar Sep 18, 2020

BY THE BY IS IT TOO OBVIOUS A CLUE

HIS JERSEY NUMBER

The 23 enigma can be seen in: Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea 's book, The Illuminatus! Trilogy (therein called the "23/17 Phenomenon") Wilson's Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (therein called "the Law of Fives" or "the 23 Enigma")

23 enigma - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_enigma

Image via Getty/Nathaniel S. Butler

NBA fans have took to social media to bash a ridiculous claim calling LeBron James an "illuminati wizard." Said theory came from right-wing conspiracy theorist and evangelist Sheila Zilinsky. 

In an absolutely bizarre video picked up on by Right Wing Watch on Twitter, Zilinsky suggested that LeBron has been "conjuring up demons before every game" through his chalk toss. "Is LeBron James just an athlete?" she asks, before beginning to highlight his chalk toss in numerous photos.

"The sports world calls it a chalk toss, but it’s simply disguise for what he’s really doing,” Zilinsky says in her truly deranged video. “A high level conjuring, a spell, an incantation from this Illuminati wizard, where he’s summoning demons. I believe he’s conjuring up demons before every game. Plain and simple. Really take a look at these so-called chalk tosses, it is very frightening this ritual that he does."

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Sheila Zilinsky warns that LeBron James in an "Illuminati wizard' who is "conjuring up demons before every game" by tossing chalk into the air. pic.twitter.com/hh0LHPLapo— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) September 18, 2020

While it might seem impossible to figure out how she reached this conclusion about LeBron, her YouTube channel is full of similarly unhinged videos. Video titles include, "SPIRIT OF THE WORM: ARE YOU INFECTED?" and "Dismantling The SPIRITS Behind the COVID Pandemic." Far-right Christian conspiracy theorist or troubled Houston Rockets fan? You be the judge.

Read reactions to the definitely not true theory that LeBron is an "illuminati wizard" who is "conjuring demons" below.

Sounds extremely cool. https://t.co/dFHBUwaZST— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) September 18, 2020

Y’all have to admit that he’s the goat after this one. I’ve never heard anyone say that MJ was so good that demons could be the only explanation of his greatness lmao https://t.co/qblSjFhl13— Alexandre Fall (@YaBoyBennieC) September 18, 2020

Lebron started advocating for racial equality and all the right-wing nutjobs called him an Illuminati wizard 😭 https://t.co/KOOqRpTcHh— Henry is in pain. (@wokehenryy) September 18, 2020

Where exactly can someone sign up to be an Illuminati wizard cuz that sounds cool AF?— •𖤐Rö|3𖤐• (@RobMatheny80) September 18, 2020

Is it against the rules to summon a demon to help you win? I don’t see it in the rule book, it’s an air bud rule— Alex K (@alexquitska) September 18, 2020

There’s a bunch of people in Washington who can tell her that lebron destroys Wizards https://t.co/6PSpBDBvfY— Ziggy (@ZiggyOfAk) September 18, 2020

Right-wing conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen, but I must admit that if Lebron is a wizard who can "conjure up demons," my respect for him would grow. https://t.co/15vr13LiO8— Don Adams (@Dadams507) September 18, 2020

are you for real? being as good as lebron was always a pipe dream but now you're telling me i have to be a fucking wizard too? i give up https://t.co/sZBfBHtWn6— Fuccboi Extraordinaire (@Sans_Argonauts) September 18, 2020

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23 enigma - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_enigma

• Overview
• In popular culture
• Origins
• In literature
• See also

Music and art duo The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (later known as The KLF and the K Foundation) named themselves after the fictional conspiratorial group "The Justified Ancients of Mummu" from Illuminatus!; the number 23 is a recurring theme in the duo's work. Perhaps most infamously, as the K Foundation they burnt one million poundson 23 August 1994 and subsequently agreed not to publicly discuss the burning for a period of 23 years. 23 years to the day after the burning they returned to launch a novel and discus…

Wikipedia · Text under CC-BY-SA license

MANY SUCH ILLUMINATI CONSPRIACY THEORIES ORIGINATE IN WEST AFRICAN POPULAR CULTURE, LIKE THE NIGERIAN PRINCE EMAILS FROM THE NINETIES 

The Number 23 - The illuminati Code - Religion - Nigeria

https://www.nairaland.com/2841308/number-23-illuminati-code

The Number 23 is a secret number that many don’t know about. The Christians today read the bible on daily basis but don’t understand/notice the often use of the number 2 and 3 and ask about the secret behind it July 23rd July 23rd is both the Sumerian and Egyptian New Year. You can make your research, it fun time Latin Alphabet There are 23 letters in the Latin alphabet. Which was used in ...

OPINION

Someone's head is in the clouds, but it isn't LeBron'

Charita M. Goshay
The Repository Canton Ohio

Because we all could use a break from the nonstop drama, may I present the Rev. Sheila Zilinsky and her theory that LeBron James is secretly a wizard and card-carrying member of the Illuminati who conjures up demons by way of his pregame “chalk toss.”

No, really.

Someone - it wasn’t me - pointed out that James has that kind of power but he can’t regrow his fast-fading hairline?

If it truly is the case that James has the ability to conjure the Underworld, how then, to explain his leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers, not once but twice, when he simply could have used his hoo-doo to win-win?

Plus, with James being a faithful Northeast Ohioan, it only seems fair that he should have sprinkled a little magic dust on home plate at Progressive Field, and in the end zones at Cleveland Browns Stadium, commonly known as “the Factory of Sadness.”

At the very least, he could have prevented Hue Jackson from becoming the head coach in 2017, resulting in a historic 0-16 season, or are Cleveland sports teams so cursed that not even Beelzebub wants a piece of the action?

In 2016, James did carry the Cavs to the NBA World Championship, but what self-respecting wizard pulls only one rabbit out of the hat?

Zelinsky charges that James is engaging in black magic.

Well, he is Black, and he is pretty damned magical, even after 17 years.

James does have superpowers that have nothing to do with chalk.

His mantra is no spell, it’s simply this: “Nothing is given. Everything is earned.”

He has used his powers for good from the moment he was handed a cape.

Earlier this year, he used some of those powers to create More Than a Vote, an organization designed to help Americans to cast their votes.

More Than a Vote has secured Dodgers Stadium as a voting venue and is paying fines for some former felons in Florida, which has imposed a type of poll tax in the form of unpaid court fines.

Before you say that sounds reasonable and fair, ask yourself many Florida millionaires who have welched and dodged on their taxes and child support will be prevented from voting.

Now, does evil exist? Your answer probably depends on your belief system, your culture, even your politics.

If you believe in it, there’s no need to search for it in clouds of chalk.

Zilinsky, whose website describes her as a former top Canadian government official in the area of environmental policy, writes books and runs a podcast which she uses to spread her particular brand of Chrisitanty.

Among her other contentions are accusations that the Freemasons are fanboys of Satan, and that the Disney Co. uses “ Illuminati mind control” which has contributed to America’s spiritual demise. By positioning itself as a positive source of entertainment, Disney, Zilinsky argues, is manipulating Americans in plain sight.

Zilinsky has every right to worship and believe as she pleases. What she doesn’t have the right to do is impugn another person with baseless and scurrilous accusations.

There is a saying in evangelical circles that can be so spiritual that you are no earthly good.

James has used his power to ensure that hundreds of kids in Akron can attend the University of Akron tuition-free, and his LeBron James Family Foundation has helped numerous Akron families acquire safe and decent housing.

He and his business partner, Maverick Carter, have launched a media company to produce positive stories about the Black experiences which might not otherwise see the light of day.

He could just shut up and dribble as some have suggested he do. Instead, he has exercised his celebrity to speak truth to power.

October is around the corner, that time of year when the horror stories start to ramp up.

Clearly, we’re ahead of schedule.

An Illuminati Conspiracy Theory Captured American Imaginations in the Nation’s Earliest Days—And Offers a Lesson for Now

John Fea,
Time•September 24, 2020

  

Timothy Dwight circa 1795: Reverend Timothy Dwight IV (1752 - 1817) Credit - Getty Images

In the final weeks before the 2020 election, the outsize role of conspiracy theories in American politics has become unmistakable. For some Trump supporters in particular, campaign-season news is filtered through the powerful idea that hidden forces are at work, that the “deep state”—a supposed secret, shadowy and sinister group of leftist politicians, government bureaucrats, Chinese scientists, journalists, academics and intellectuals—is seeking to destroy American values. Seen through that lens, COVID-19, which has killed nearly 200,000 Americans, is a “hoax”; some even believe that Anthony Fauci is a “deep state doctor.”

But while the particulars of these theories may be new, the dynamics are not. In fact, they go all the way back to America’s earliest years: In the late 1790s, Jedidiah Morse, the congregational minister in Charlestown, Mass., and a well-known author of geography textbooks, drew national attention by suggesting that a secret organization called the Bavarian Illuminati was at work “to root out and abolish Christianity, and overturn all civil government.” Today, such an idea sounds both eerily familiar and like a relic of a less sophisticated time—but the lessons of that episode are decidedly relevant.

With the ratification of the Constitution fresh in the minds of most Americans, and upheaval ongoing across the Atlantic in the form of the French Revolution, the late 18th century was a volatile time. In that environment, Morse became convinced that this group of atheists and infidels were behind the secular Jacobin movement in France that sought to purge the nation of organized religion. He believed that the Illuminati group was pursuing the same clandestine agenda in America and was working closely with Thomas Jefferson-led Democratic Republicans, the Federalists’ political rivals, to pull it off.-

Morse, a Federalist himself, read about the Bavarian Illuminati in books published by European religious skeptics, which described a network of secret lodges scattered across the continent. In a 1798 fast day sermon, he appealed to the worst fears of those evangelicals who remained concerned with the moral character of the new republic. He described the Illuminati’s ominous attempts to “abjure Christianity, justify suicide (by declaring death an eternal sleep), advocate sensual pleasures agreeable to Epicurean philosophy…decry marriage, and advocate a promiscuous intercourse among the sexes.”

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The presence of the Illuminati in America, Morse believed, should cause Christians to “tremble for the safety of our political, as well as our religious ark.” In another sermon on the subject, Morse printed a list of secret societies and Illuminati members currently working their sinister schemes in his Christian nation.

Soon Timothy Dwight, the president of Yale College in New Haven, Conn., expressed similar fears about the Illuminati and used his pen to sound the alarm. In a Fourth of July discourse entitled The Duty of Americans, at the Present Crisis, Dwight quoted from Revelation 16 to caution his listeners and eventual readers about “unclean teachers” who were educating innocent people in “unclean doctrines.” Such teachers were spreading throughout the world to “unite mankind against God.” As they performed their malicious work, the Bavarian Illuminati took cues from previous opponents of Protestant America–the Jesuits, Voltaire and the Masons, to name a few.

Dwight called Americans back to God. This, he believed, was the only effective way of resisting such subversive threats to social virtue. “Where religion prevails,” he wrote, “Illuminatism cannot make disciples, a French directory cannot govern, a nation cannot be made slaves, nor villains, nor atheists, nor beasts.” Dwight reminded his readers that if this dangerous society succeeded in its plans, the children of evangelicals would be forced to read the work of deists or become “concubines” of a society that treated “chastity” as a “prejudice,” adultery as virtue, and marriage as a “farce.”

By the turn of the 19th century, theories about the Illuminati had traveled up and down the Eastern Seaboard and as far as the Caribbean islands. Elias Boudinot, a former president of the Continental Congress, and John Jay, a Federalist statesman, also bought into this conspiracy theory.

Critics of these evangelical Federalists argued that Morse and Dwight, both clergymen, spent too much time dabbling in politics instead of tending to the souls of the Christians under their spiritual care. Others accused these conspiracy theorists of having “overheated imaginations”—and it soon became clear that, while the political forces at work in the 18th century U.S. were very real, this last group of critics was simply correct. There were no Illuminati forces at work in American politics. The conspiracy theory spread by these respected men was just that.

Eventually, Morse’s accusations against Democratic-Republican societies were unable to withstand the weight of evidence and he stopped talking about the Illuminati. As historian Jonathan Den Hartog has written, evangelical Federalists concerned about the preservation of a Christian nation “overplayed their hand” by propagating the Illuminati scare. In the process, they “called their standing as societal authorities into question, and ultimately weakened their position” as shapers of American culture. Within two decades the Federalist Party had faded from the political landscape, but their fears about the collapse of evangelical culture in the United States would persist well into the 21st century.

Today, many evangelical Christians, living with anxiety about perceived threats to what they believe to be the decline of a Christian nation, have turned toward conspiracy theories. Whether it is a “deep state” working secretly with the intelligence community to weaken the Trump administration, an Internet prophet called “Q” or demonic forces seeking to thwart God’s plan for America, we have seen this all before.

In 1790, truth, evidence and reason prevailed, but not before evangelical leaders embarrassed themselves and tarnished their Gospel witness. The comparisons with 2020 are not perfect. No historical analogies are. But sometimes, as we like to say, history rhymes.


John Fea is Distinguished Professor of American History at Messiah University and author of Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2007/03/origin-of-american-conspiracy-theories.html

Locked-up computer systems only part of 'terrifying' ransomware scourge

© Provided by The Canadian Press

TORONTO — A shadowy group of cyber criminals that attacked a prominent nursing organization and Canadian Tire store has successfully targeted other companies with clients in governments, health care, insurance and other sectors.

Posts on their NetWalker "blog" indicate the recent infiltration of cloud-services company Accreon and document company Xpertdoc, although only the College of Nurses of Ontario has publicly acknowledged being victimized.

Experts say NetWalker surfaced about a year ago but its attacks took off in March as the criminals exploited fears of COVID and people working remotely. The ransomware, like similar malware, often infiltrates computer networks via phishing emails. Such messages masquerade as genuine, prompting users to provide log-in information or inadvertently download malware.

Earlier ransomware attacks focused on encrypting a target's files — putting them and even backups out of reach. Increasingly, attackers also threaten to publish data stolen during their "dwell time," the days or weeks spent inside an exploited network before encryption and detection.

The intruders promise to provide a decryption key and to destroy stolen records if the organization pays a ransom, often based on what the attackers have learned about its finances, by a given deadline.

To underscore the extortion, NetWalker criminals publish tantalizing screen shots of information they have, such as personnel, financial, legal and health records.

"The data in these cases is extremely sensitive," said Brett Callow, a Vancouver Island-based threat analyst with cyber-security firm, Emsisoft. "Lots of companies choose not to disclose these incidents, so the individuals and (third-party) organizations whose data have been compromised never find out."

In an interview, Richard Brossoit, CEO of Montreal-based Xpertdoc, said this month's attack was a "little terrifying" at first. Fortunately, he said, damage was limited and no confidential client or personal information was compromised, although some records might be permanently lost.

"Once we were able to isolate the problem and knew it was minimal — that our customers weren't really affected at all — obviously it was a very big relief," Brossoit said.

With new computers, his several dozen employees were back up and running within days, he said. Still, Xpertdoc did hire specialists to deal with the cyber-criminals.

"We were able to negotiate a very low ransom," Brossoit said. "They didn't ask too much and we were able to actually negotiate much lower than what they were asking."

Morneau Shapell, one of dozens of potential third-party victims, said it accepted Xpertdoc's assurances no sensitive information had been compromised.

Accreon, which has until the first weekend in October to pay up, would not discuss its situation.

NetWalker did recently publish gigabytes of internal data from a Canadian Tire store in Kelowna, B.C. In response to a query, Canadian Tire Corporation said store computers were hit and authorities were investigating.

"This incident has not affected the Canadian Tire Corporation computer networks that process customer information or purchases," the company said, adding store employees were told their personal information had been compromised.

The nurses' college, which angered members by taking more than a week to publicly admit the attack discovered Sept. 8, did say it was getting back on its feet, although some services remained down.

"We share our members' distress and frustration that this has happened," college CEO Anne Coghlan said in a statement. "Members can rest assured that we will notify them directly if we identify any risk to individuals."

The consequences of ransomware can go beyond the financial and reputational. This month, for example, a hospital in Duesseldorf, Germany, was unable to admit a patient for urgent treatment after an apparent cyber-attack crippled its IT system, authorities said. The woman died.

Such attacks have become increasingly frequent. Earlier victims in Canada include municipalities — among them Stratford and Wasaga Beach in Ontario and the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen in B.C. — health-care organizations and charities. Cloud storage companies, with troves of third-party data, have also become attractive targets.

This year, the University of California San Francisco paid US$1.14 million to regain access to its data. The encrypted information, the school said, was "important to some of the academic work we pursue as a university serving the public good."

Just how often victims pay — and how much — is hard to know. One analysis by New Zealand-based Emsisoft, using available data, estimates ransomware losses for Canadian enterprises could run up to US$1.7 billion this year.

"It's really difficult to get accurate statistics," said David Masson, a director with cyber-security company Darktrace. "Those who pay won't be telling you. If you do pay, you're probably going to be attacked again because very quickly...you're going to get a reputation that you paid."

Those behind NetWalker appear to be Russian speaking. They provide the malware for a cut to "affiliates," who promise not to attack Russian or Russia-friendly targets.

"Their attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated," Callow said. "These groups are using the exact same tools as nation-state actors. In some cases, they may actually be nation-state actors."

Experts say up-to-date anti-virus software, segmenting networks and keeping separate backups are among critical protective measures. In addition, Masson said knowing what is going on within a network is crucial, while Brossoit advised hiring specialists should an attack happen.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Sept. 27, 2020.

Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press

Feds promise free, automatic tax returns — a change that could send benefits to thousands

John Paul Tasker
  

© Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press The federal Liberal government promised in its speech from the throne that it would introduce free, automatic tax filing through the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

The federal government says it will soon introduce a free, automatic tax filing system for simple returns — a policy change meant to provide government benefits to qualified people who don't collect them now because they skip filing their taxes.

The promise — a one-line commitment buried in the 6,783-word speech from the throne — could help hundreds of thousands of low- and fixed-income Canadians access benefits that are only paid to people who file tax returns.

By law, and in most cases, only people who owe taxes are required to file a return each year with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).


Many people — notably those on government assistance — don't expect to owe the federal government anything, so they seldom file.

Under the proposed changes, the CRA itself would draw up the paperwork for such simple returns each year — using data they already have on hand about individuals' income — to eliminate a bureaucratic burden that stands in the way of financial support.

Experts in tax policy have long said that the CRA already has enough personal information to automatically fill out tax returns for many infrequent filers. Much of the needed figures are electronically transmitted to the agency by employers and government agencies alike.

Thirty-six countries, including Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, already permit return-free filing for some taxpayers.
Many Canadians missing out on federal money

On average, 12 per cent of working-age adults in Canada don't send in a return each year — a number that jumps to 15.9 per cent in Ontario, according to figures compiled by researchers at Carleton University.

As a result, many would-be recipients miss out on some federal programs like the Canada child benefit (CCB), the Canada workers benefit and the carbon tax rebate — money that could give a significant leg-up to low-income families.

Fewer than 3 per cent of homeless Canadians collect the GST/HST credit, according to research done by the Calgary Homeless Foundation.

Research from Prosper Canada, published in 2018, suggests as many as 40 per cent of eligible First Nations families aren't collecting the CCB — a monthly cheque paid to people with kids who fall below a certain income bracket.

A 2017 CBC News report documented internal government concerns about the slow uptake of the CCB among First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.

The Liberal government reworked the benefit, which was introduced by former prime minister Stephen Harper, and tightened eligibility to send more money to low- and middle-income Canadians — but many of the neediest were still left out.

Employment and Social Development Canada, the department responsible for sending the cheques to families, cited "a mistrust of the federal government and its programs and a resistance to taxation" as reasons why so many Indigenous people were leaving thousands of dollars unclaimed.

Lindsay Tedds is a professor of fiscal and economic policy at the University of Calgary. She said tying benefit eligibility to a tax filing is bad policy because it leaves out many eligible recipients who, for whatever reason, don't file returns.

Tedds said that for too long, tax filing and tax software lobby groups have been actively discouraging the CRA and its U.S. equivalent, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), from implementing automatic returns for fear it could put a dent in profits.

"I find it really disturbing that someone with a very simple tax return is going to a provider to pay $60 to have them fill out something that the CRA already can do," Tedds told CBC News.

"If we're going to deliver benefits through the tax system then we absolutely have to rethink our tax structure that was set up in 1918. A significant number of vulnerable people are missing out."

She said that while the change looks like a simple fix, it could go a long way toward achieving poverty reduction objectives.

A spokesperson for National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier said the government is committed to making the tax process easier and more affordable for Canadians.

"In fact, in 2018, we introduced 'File my Return' where low and fixed-income Canadians were invited to file their tax returns through a simple and free telephone service," the spokesperson said in a statement.

But Tedds said that program — which involves CRA agents proactively reaching out to people by phone or mail to encourage them to file in order to collect benefits — isn't all that useful because there's a great deal of mistrust out there, especially among Indigenous people.

"We have a colonial and institutional system whereby the interaction they have with the state is solely the state coming to take their kids away, so proactively reaching out is not going to overcome these fundamental barriers," she said.

Tedds said many within the CRA see the institution as just a collection agency and not a purveyor of benefits — and are blind to the agency's grim reputation.

"The CRA is not known as being a loving, caring, nurturing organization to deal with," she said. "When we look at the data, CRA is not doing a fantastic job here.

"There are those in CRA and the Department of Finance who just don't fundamentally understand that the tax system is actually a barrier to achieving other objectives."

People of Praise: Barrett pick draws attention to small religious group CULT

By Gregory Krieg, Em Steck and Daniel Burke, CNN

© University of Notre Dame



President Donald Trump's nomination of federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court has drawn new attention to her association with a Christian group called People of Praise.

Barrett has not spoken publicly about her relationship to the religious community, which was founded in 1971 and includes "Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians and other denominational and nondenominational Christians," according to its website.

Interest in Barrett and her background has been intensified by the condensed timeframe Republicans have laid out for her potential confirmation. That she would be replacing the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon and supporter of abortion rights, has only heightened the tensions surrounding the nomination process.

Barrett's religious beliefs came up during 2017 confirmation hearings to her current seat on the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals. California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein questioned whether the nominee could separate her faith from her legal opinions. At issue then, as it is now, is how her faith would inform her approach, especially on legal challenges to abortion rights.

Barrett said at the time that her personal views would have "no bearing on the discharge of my duties as a judge" -- on abortion or any other question before the court. She did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

But Barrett's association with People of Praise was not mentioned during the 2017 hearing and only became widely known, and the subject of speculation, when the New York Times published a report on Barrett and the group that September, after she took senators' questions but before her confirmation in the Senate.

Barrett has frequently appeared in a "Vine and Branches," the People of Praise magazine. Those mentions included birth and adoption announcements for some of her children and other passing mentions and images. A number of online versions of the issues that include her appear to have been removed from the website -- though it is unclear why that action was taken. The magazine's website no longer has issues for May 2006, July 2008, December 2008, March 2010, Winter 2011, Summer 2012 and Fall 2012, which all contained references to Barrett, her husband or children.

The references were scrubbed between January 2017 and June 2017. Barrett was announced as the White House's nominee as a circuit judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in May 2017.

In the questionnaire submitted to the Judiciary Committee when she was nominated by Trump to her current judgeship, Barrett disclosed that she served on the board of trustees of the Trinity School from 2015 to 2017. People of Praise founded the school in South Bend, Indiana, in 1981.

It opened two more -- one in Eagan, Minnesota, in 1987 and other in Falls Church, Virginia, in 1998. While students who attend the schools are not necessarily members of People of Praise, the group's communications director Sean Connolly said membership is a prerequisite to serving on the school's board.

People of Praise also removed a blog post from September 2015 announcing that Barrett had been elected to the board of trustees of the Trinity School. It is unclear when or why it was taken down.

Connolly declined to comment on why the post had been taken down. He would not discuss Coney Barrett's affiliation with People of Praise, citing official policy.

"Like most religious communities, People of Praise leaves it up to its members to decide whether to publicly disclose their involvement in our community. And like most religious communities, we do not publish a membership list," Connolly told CNN.

People of Praise counts 1,700 members spread across 22 cities in North America and the Caribbean, including South Bend, Indiana, where Barrett lives. The group's members make a "covenant," or "lifelong promise of love and service to fellow community members," according to its website, which distinguishes the commitment from an "oath" or "vow."

It recently dropped its use of the term "handmaids," which described a woman acting as a spiritual leader in the group and was taken from a Biblical description of Mary.

"We have chosen to rely on male leadership at the highest level of our community based on our desire to be a family of families," Connolly said. "We follow the New Testament teaching that the husband is the head of the family, and we have patterned our community on this New Testament approach to family life."

Connolly added that women "take on a variety of leadership roles within People of Praise, including serving as heads of several of our schools and directing ministries within our community."

"Christian leadership always involves service and sacrifice, and in no way involves superiority or domination among spouses," he said.

Barrett has charted a meteoric rise in academic and legal circles. Her colleagues at Notre Dame, where she was hired nearly two decades ago and still teaches, wrote an effusive letter of support when she was first nominated to the federal bench.

"As a scholarly community, we have a wide range of political views, as well as commitments to different approaches to judicial methodology and judicial craft," they said. "We are united, however, in our judgment about Amy. She is a brilliant teacher and scholar, and a warm and generous colleague."

She was confirmed to the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017 with 55 votes in the Senate. Among the Democrats to cross party lines: Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016.